The invention pertains to a device for manufacturing perfect-bound printed products.
Such a device is also referred to as a perfect binder, wherein glue is applied onto the previously processed spine of the book block and a cover and/or a lining strip is placed around and pressed against the block spine. Different binding processes and product variations can be realized depending on the equipment of the perfect binder. As used herein, “book block” should be understood as encompassing several folded sections and/or sheets or the like to be perfectly bound into printed products such as brochures, magazines or book blocks for hard covers.
DE 20 2005 007 012 U1 describes a binding machine of this type with a book block conveying device consisting of an endless conveying means that revolves around deflection pulleys and a plurality of clamps for clamping sheet stacks that are respectively arranged on the conveying means at the same pitch spacing from one another. Various processing stations (such as a book block infeed station, spine processing station(s), glue application station(s), cover feeder, pressing station(s) and delivery station) are provided along straight conveying sections in order to carry out the required processing steps in accordance with the respective binding process. In perfect binders of the medium and high performance range, the clamps are arranged on the conveying means in very close succession with a minimum practical pitch spacing that is slightly larger than the length of the clamp, i.e., minimum (theoretical) pitch spacing that can be accommodated by the book block conveyor. In the processing stations, a cycle time referred to the pitch spacing is defined, wherein one complete work cycle is respectively carried out within this cycle time simultaneously with the conveyance of the clamps that are advanced by the pitch spacing.
Such perfect binders with a plurality of continuously revolving clamps serve for the mass production of identical brochures or book blocks with high manufacturing efficiency. The perfect binders are set up for a certain printed product and subsequently produce the desired edition in a single pass. During the production, the adjustments of the various processing stations are corrected, if so required, in order to improve the quality of the printed product.
After the last printed product of a print run has exited the perfect binder, the machine is reset to the next printed product. Control variables related to the formats (height, width, thickness) of the input products and end products, as well as generally format-independent control variables, are changed in the processing stations of the perfect binder while the book block conveying device is at a standstill. The guides and conveying means in the feed devices for the input products also need to be reset to the new dimensions of the book blocks and covers. Format-independent adjustments, e.g., may consist of the depth and the spacing between the notches to be produced in the book block spine in a spine processing station or of the respective glue application thickness in gluing stations.
Although the essential resetting processes in these perfect binders have meanwhile been automated by means of a central control device and motor-driven adjusting axle systems and these resetting processes essentially take place in parallel, each production change is still associated with a time-consuming set-up process that is economically disproportionate to the actual processing time, particularly with respect to smaller print runs.